Federated Farmers of New Zealand is a lobby and advocacy group for all farmers:

arable Arable relates to the growing of crops: * Arable farming or agronomy, the cultivation of field crops * Arable land, land upon which crops are cultivated * Arable crops program The arable crops program is a consolidated support system operated und ...

including fruit and vegetables,

dairy A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing (or both) of animal milk – mostly from cows or buffaloes, but also from goats, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on ...

and meat and their often remote communities. It has a network of 24 regional organisations and six industry groups. Federated Farmers lobbies on farming issues both nationally and within each region. Membership of the organisation is voluntary, and at 2021 it has over 13,000 members.

History

Federated Farmers was originally incorporated in 1902 as the New Zealand Farmers Union. In 1944, a joint initiative by the New Zealand Farmers Union and the New Zealand Sheepowners’ Federation led to the formation of Federated Farmers, and a new incorporated society, Federated Farmers of New Zealand Inc was registered on 30 November 1944. There were 43,000 members of Federated Farmers in 1971.

Structure and membership

The organisation is a federation of 24 independent regional bodies (provinces) that are separate incorporated societies. As of 2021, there were 13,000 members of Federated Farmers. The parent body has 11 offices around the country, and employs 60 staff. In addition to the regional member organisations, Federated Farmers has six industry groups: Arable, Dairy, Goats, High country, Meat & wool and Rural butchers. The organisation has recently introduced a discounted membership category for owners of lifestyle farm blocks.

Publications

Federated Farmers has several publications including a weekly newsletter called ''Friday Flash'', which has 11,000 subscribers as of 2021. Other publications include the ''National Farming Review'' and ''Tussock Talk''. During the

2020 New Zealand general election The 2020 New Zealand general election was held on Saturday 17 October 2020 to determine the composition of the 53rd parliament. Voters elected 120 members to the House of Representatives, 72 from single-member electorates and 48 from closed p ...

, Federated Farmer released a manifesto.

Advocacy work

Animal identification and tracing

In 2009, Federated Farmers opposed the Government's new National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) scheme, claiming that it would impose extra costs on farmers which outweighed the benefits. Farmers also feared that the NAIT scheme would